


Evil Angel

by littlemaple



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Drama & Romance, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-08
Updated: 2017-11-08
Packaged: 2019-01-31 03:19:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12667173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlemaple/pseuds/littlemaple
Summary: Demons don’t love. Whether that statement was true or false, Arthur should know better than to be stupid about something as foolish as love, for his actions would have consequences.





	1. Love

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again, everyone! 
> 
> Here I am again with a new fic. Now this one I wrote as a birthday gift for a dear friend of mine, blue-lothus @ tumblr. Happy birthday, dear!! I hope you have an amazing day <3
> 
> Some things: 
> 
> This story was SUPER fun to write. I really love it — which is kinda rare when it comes to something I've written myself!!! So I hope you all will love it as well! I wrote this as an one-shot but I'll be posting each part individually (dont' worry, I'll post it all right away)!
> 
> This story was kinda based on a RP I did with my friend a few years back. For that RP Alfred (me) went to Earth and found a college student who looked suspiciously like his missing demon boyfriend. I created a bunch of Concepts (tm) for that RP about demons, angels and souls and looking back, it was kinda cool so I decided to write this fic. It's VERY different from the RP, but some stuff I kept the same (like the story title! Which actually comes from that one Breaking Benjamin song because, at the time, it was my fave band). 
> 
> Anyway.
> 
> One last thing, very important thing: this is angst but it DOES have a happy ending. I promise. I just didn't know if I should use warnings or not because I didn't want to spoil stuff, orz.

**PROLOGUE — LOVE**

 

Demons don’t love.

That’s why they don’t bother giving each other names. Because demons do not care about each other.

He always kind of knew this, but it always kind of intrigued him.

He was curious about this love thing.

Then once, a long time ago, he snatched the soul from a dying soldier. It was his job. The man, wounded in his chest, asked the demon to see his lover once more, and the demon happily obliged: when he touched the human he saw the face of his lover and wore it. It was also his job to do so. The dying soldier smiled, and touched the demon’s cheek, and in his last breath he whispered:

“I love you, Arthur.”

And then he died.

At the time, the demon did not know what love _meant_. He only knew he was told he didn’t _feel_ it. But he liked the sound of it, and the way the dying soldier’s eyes glimmered with a dying spark as he said it. So he decided to take that name for himself: Arthur. Because that Arthur person was loved, and he was curious to know what it felt like.

He claimed the soldier’s soul to give to his superiors, and noticed the dog tags he was wearing. In the dog tags there was a name and the name was Alfred.

Arthur took that other name (and the dog tags) as well. Because demons didn’t give each other names, but if he ever found out what love felt like and if demons _could_ love and he ever loved someone, he’d like to give that someone that name.

And then if he ever found that someone he’d call them _Alfred_ and he’d touch their cheek and whisper

“I love you too, Alfred.”

Only he wouldn’t die. And he and the other demon he’d chose to love would love each other and call each other those loving names.

And then… he had no idea what would happen. But he was eager to find out. It was a nice daydream to pass the time, and if it ever become reality, Arthur was sure he was going to love it all.


	2. Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has NSFW content. It's a short scene and the only in the fic: the reason why I decided to go with "mature" instead of with "explicit."

**PART I — LIFE**

 

Alfred liked to do it against the wall. So that was where they were doing it. Alfred was stroking him hard, both his hands holding Arthur’s thighs and both Arthur’s arms around Alfred’s neck. There was a lot of moaning, mostly from Arthur’s part. Alfred liked it when Arthur was loud and Arthur liked it when Alfred had his hot, wet lips against his shoulder, heavy breathing and soft bites, whispering Arthur’s name from time to time; and they both liked to give each other what they liked. It made things better.

Soon enough Alfred was grunting and shoving so hard and so deep into Arthur he was practically screaming, fingernails on Alfred’s back and his tail twisting and retwisting on his back, his breathing breaking here and again. Alfred reached his orgasm and bit Arthur’s shoulder. Arthur was glad Alfred was holding him up because otherwise he’d have fallen. Then Alfred slowly let go of one of his legs and, still holding the other one, he started to masturbate Arthur, who was still hard. Arthur moved his hips slightly to feel Alfred inside of him, looking up and then closing his eyes in delight.

To be with Alfred, it felt so good… Right when they started doing it, even though Alfred didn’t need to, he asked Arthur what he liked. Arthur had blinked at that, confused, and then smiled saying he’d like anything Alfred would like. And then Alfred had smirked back at him, and said he’d like to know what Arthur would like.

That had been the first time someone had cared to ask.

And it felt so weird, because Arthur was just a low class succubus and Alfred was a fucking Duke of hell, and Arthur was still surprised he had managed to seduce him — in his real form, no less.

Alfred was full of surprises.

He was a lawful evil kind of creature. He attended to his duties religiously, and his attentive eyes didn’t miss any signs of forgery. If he noticed any sign of a demon trying to get away with a higher amount of souls than he was bound to, Alfred would punish them himself. It wasn’t a pretty sight.

Alfred was serious, focused, and at first he didn’t seem to care about anything else other than his job, and yet… he was kind.

And kindness was such a rare sight in a place like that, most of all to someone like Arthur.

Not only was Arthur always wearing the face of others for his own job, his class didn’t have the capacity to feed on the pure energy of human souls, even if that class was the one who usually made humans sign contracts to give them away; it needed the energy to be demonly processed first. So it fed on the sexual energy of other demons.

Only there was a catch.

“S-say you love me.” Arthur asked, almost completely out of breath, Alfred’s fingers’ holding tight, so very tight around his pulsing penis.

“I love you.” Alfred said, kissing Arthur’s neck.

“N-no, say it right. Say my name…” Arthur begged.

There was a sigh, and then Alfred said it.

“I love you, Arthur. I love you so much.” Arthur moaned at that, biting his lip and moving his hips. His name on Alfred’s sexy, hoarse voice always gave him goosebumps.

Not much longer after that, Arthur reached his own orgasm with a loud moan and his head fell on Alfred’s shoulder, his body shivering. Alfred let go of the leg he was still holding and Arthur almost fell. He felt weak. Fortunately Alfred was fast enough and caught him, holding him by the torso.

“You ok?” he asked.

“Hm…” Arthur said. He felt almost numb, and he hated it, hated it, hated it. He should feel energized, happy, alive: that’s what feeding felt like. Used to feel like.

“... have you been feeding properly?” Alfred asked, serious and squinting his eyes. Alfred knew about the catch, found it out after a while, as much as Arthur tried to hide it.

“I, I just did…” Arthur said, but he sounded too weak.

“Fuck. You asshole. You promised.” Alfred said, and he was angry now. He picked Arthur up and put him on the bed, and Arthur immediately curled up in himself, only the tip of his tail moving, very lazy, very tired. His small, dark wings stretched themselves on the mattress and then stopped moving.

“When was the last time you fed?” Alfred asked again.

“I did just now…” Arthur insisted, but he was too pale, too tired to sound convincing.

Alfred groaned and got on the bed as well. He moved until he was on top of Arthur, and he rolled him up so they would be facing each other. Usually Arthur would love to stare into Alfred’s cold, deep blue eyes, at his dark, silky hair and even darker, twisted horns, but at that moment he couldn’t, so he looked away. Alfred held his chin and made him look anyway.

“Tell me the _truth_. When was the last time you fed? The truth, _Arthur_. _Now_.” Alfred sounded angry. Arthur knew he was. He hardly ever called Arthur by that name when they weren’t having sex.

Arthur had asked him to call him by that name, and to call him Alfred after they were together for a long time. He had been embarrassed at first, but Alfred didn’t question it. He just laughed and said, _you have weird kinks, Arthur._ And that was it. Alfred also thought that whenever Arthur asked him to say he loved him was a kink, and it wasn’t, but it was okay.

Arthur gulped.

“I don’t want to do it with anyone else…” was what Arthur said. Alfred sighed. Arthur could see his tail moving frenetically, angry, impatient. For a second he thought Alfred would do something violent to him, like he used to do with demons who didn’t answer him like he wanted during formal balls or meetings. But he did not. He just moved his face closer, his noses almost touching. He was staring so deep into Arthur’s eyes that Arthur shivered but it was different than before.

“ _Tell me_.” Alfred hissed.

Arthur closed his eyes.

“... a couple months.” he said.

“ _A couple months?!_ Are you fucking serious?!” Alfred yelled.

“A-almost three months, actually… but, but I’m fine!” Arthur said, and he looked up back to Alfred. It was hard to be convincing when he was still short of breath.

“So you lied to me. During these past three months, you’ve been lying to me whenever we met. You _told me_ you were feeding. You fucking lying idiot.” Alfred said. There was a hint of worry in his voice and it both warmed Arthur’s chest and made it fill with guilty.

“I’m sorry. I just… I don’t want anybody else touching me. Only you.” he admitted with pink cheeks.

Alfred sighed.

“You can’t afford that, you asshole. You’ll die. You can’t feed from me anymore.” Alfred said. He didn’t look as angry as before, and his eyes seemed softer.

That was the catch: his body could only feed from a particular demon as long as it also fed from others. If he only got energy from a single demon, his body would stop processing the energy as food, and instead of being energized, it would tire itself.

Arthur had no idea why. It had never happened to anyone before, because nobody else wanted to only have sex with a single demon. That wasn’t something natural for their class.

At first, Arthur was like that too. He was amazed he managed to seduce a Duke, and he was more than glad to go back to his bed whenever requested, but he was also seducing as many other demons as he could. It was a matter of survival.

But then something started to change in him. And the more the Duke called him back the more he wanted to be called back, the more he wanted to lay in bed with him after they had finished, and stare at each other, and talk about anything, and sometimes even lay down with Alfred hugging Arthur from behind, his hands tight around his waist, their naked bodies close and warm and Arthur’s wings were fortunately too small to cause any discomfort which was just perfect, and Arthur would think whether humans had a word for that, because it felt so intimate and loving they must have one. And the more they did it the less he wanted to be in other demon’s beds, the less he wanted to go to the human realm to do his job.

He just wanted to be with Alfred.

Only after a while he noticed that having sex with Alfred made him tired and hungry, and Alfred noticed it too. They talked about it and concluded Arthur needed to have sex with other demons as well so they could check if the problem was Alfred. And their suspicions were confirmed. Arthur absolutely hated it, but he knew he needed to feed, so he did it.

Only as time passed he decided to push himself as much as he could to see how long he could go without feeding. As long as he only met with Alfred once or twice during that time, he could go very well with no feeding for two months. And then he’d have to feed, and he would hate every moment of it, then start again.

He knew Alfred would be angry if he found out, so Arthur tried to keep it a secret.

But now Alfred knew.

“I hate to have sex with others.” Arthur looked away, “I… I think I love you.” he admitted, heart racing, mouth dry.

Alfred blinked, surprised, then scoffed.

“Arthur,” he said, placing a hand on Arthur’s cheek and lovingly caressing it. Arthur closed his eyes for a second, like a cat receiving head rubs, “creatures like us, we don’t feel _love_. That’s something for humans to feel. And angels, I guess.”

Arthur shook his head but did it lightly so Alfred’s hand wouldn’t move away.

“You’re wrong. I know what I’m feeling.” he said. It was a lie. He didn’t _know_. How could he? He had never felt _love_ before, as much as he had been researching it, watching it, asking about it. But he thought he did. What else was that warm sensation he had whenever he was with Alfred? What was that pleasure and happiness and longing flowing in his body whenever he thought of being with Alfred? Maybe it was something else, or had a different name. But it was _something_ and something good no less. Like love. He wanted Alfred and he wanted to be with Alfred and being with others made him feel bad. Was it too much to ask? Could he not indulge in that? If it made him happy, why was it wrong?

“Yeah, I may be wrong, but something I know: you can’t feed on this love of yours. If you try, it will get you killed. You need to feed because if you don’t you won’t be with me either, because you’ll be _dead_.” Alfred said. He was all seriousness, and he added, “And I don’t want you to be dead.”

Arthur looked down, and then up to Alfred’s chest. He was wearing the necklace Arthur had given him. Arthur had stolen it from the human world and kept it with him for a long, long time. It was his only treasure. And then he gave it to Alfred because Alfred liked shiny things, and because Arthur loved him, and because he wanted Alfred to be his, and if Alfred had his treasure, then he would be.

“Do _you_ do it with others?” Arthur asked. The question left his mouth without him noticing. He gulped and pressed his lips together.

“No, you’re enough for me.” Alfred said, with a smiley honesty that made Arthur blush.

“How do you feel with me doing it with others?” he looked up, and Alfred smiled at him, then kissed his forehead.

“It doesn’t matter what I feel, because it’s something you need to do.” Alfred answered. He caressed Arthur’s cheek again and Arthur felt like he could melt under that soft, caring touch.

He really loved Alfred, after all.

“Okay.” Arthur sighed, “I’ll go feed.”

“Good. Promise me you’ll do it at least twice a month.” Alfred asked.

Arthur bit his lip and looked away. Alfred sighed. “Once a month, then.” Alfred proposed.

Arthur furrowd his brows, still not happy with it, but he ended up nodding.

“Promise.” Alfred asked.

“I promise.” Arthur answered.

Alfred smiled. “Good.” he said, messing with Arthur’s hair and having him roll his eyes as he got up. “I have an appointment with the Prince in a few hours, so I need to get ready.” he explained, looking at Arthur and crossing his arms, “I’m going to have a bath now. Would you like to join me? Literally _just_ a bath. You’ll have to keep your dirty little hands away from me. I just want them touching me again after you’ve fed. Are we clear?” Alfred said.

Arthur chuckled and sat up. His body was heavy and he gulped. He nodded, “Yes. Clear as water. You’ll have to carry me, though.” he asked. Alfred seemed a bit worried at that, but he walked back to the bed anyway and picked Arthur on his arms. Arthur rested his head against Alfred’s shoulder and closed his eyes, breathing in his scent of sweat and dusty books, rubbing his nose against his skin.

“You comfy there?” Alfred asked, and Arthur lazily nodded in response, “Do you want me to call someone for you? For you to feed I mean.” he said.

Arthur frowned. “No. I don’t want to have someone fuck me in your bed. No.”

“Alright.” Alfred laughed. He walked to his bathroom, and the bathtub was already full with crystal clear water. He put Arthur in and then entered himself. Arthur immediately sat on his lap, resting his head against Alfred’s shoulder once more, ignoring Alfred’s eyerolls.

“You’re too needy.” he said, but Arthur simply shrugged, “Do you want a ride downtown, at least? I don’t think you should fly around like this.” he offered, brushing Arthur’s hair back with his wet fingers. Arthur was almost asleep, and he thought a nap while in the bath with Alfred wasn’t a bad idea.

So he nodded and closed his eyes, and before he fell asleep he felt a soft kiss on his forehead, which made him smile, his tail twitching happily.

Less than three hours later they were downtown. The carriage, pulled by Alfred’s skeleton dragon, came to a stop by the plaza and Alfred opened the door to Arthur. Arthur looked outside and felt a chilly breeze messing his fluffy red hair. During the late evening the sparse reddish street lights gave the place a nice look: the streetless land met the horizon, and the old buildings here and there with their soft yellow lights inside made Arthur feel at home. He had always lived in that place, though he wouldn’t complain to live in Alfred’s manor someday. The sky was cloudless but the moon shone with a pale yellow light. There were no stars.

“Go feed. Don’t even go home. Go straight after someone.” Alfred said. He was serious again, even more with his formal attire. Arthur always liked to wear formal clothing as well, but his were the same he was wearing earlier that day, which meant they were all crumpled and dirty.

“Yeah, I know. I will.” Arthur said, getting off the carriage. There were a few demons walking and flying nearby and neither of them seemed to care about the huge, fleshless dragon standing in the middle of the plaza.

“I’ll see you next week.” Alfred said. He took Arthur’s arm and pulled him closer for a quick kiss. “Take care, jerk.”

Arthur rolled his eyes. He felt exhausted, but he still was managing to stand up and walk and talk, so he was fine. “Yeah, I will. You too. Have a good meeting.” he said. Alfred gave him a thumbs up and Arthur turned to leave.

“Oh, and Arthur?” Alfred called. Arthur’s chest filled with happiness and he turned with a smile.

Alfred was smiling back. “I’ll be mad if you don’t feed. So please do it.” he said. Arthur had expected him to say _I love you_ , but that was good enough. It showed he cared.

“I will. Don’t worry.”

After that Alfred closed the carriage door and the dragon took off, carrying Alfred away.

But it was okay, because they would be seeing each other again soon enough.


	3. Death

**PART II — DEATH**

 

Now that he was walking, Arthur noticed how tired he was. Really, really tired. He had to stop and breath a few times while he was walking, and once or twice he felt his insides twisting and hurting, his legs weak, his mind heavy. He knew he was hurting himself by refusing to feed, and he knew it was a stupid choice. Alfred was right. He couldn’t keep that up, as much as he didn’t like the idea of other demons touching him, it wasn’t a choice he could make.

He took a deep breath and resumed walking.

There was a demon he knew, someone who owed him a favor. Nothing much, really, just someone he helped out a long time ago and, honestly, he knew this demon wouldn’t mind one bit to have sex with him. So both would win. And Arthur wanted to go to that demon he knew because he wouldn’t need to explain himself or do small talk. He could just get there and say “You owe me a favour. Let’s have sex, now,” and that would be it. He didn’t have energy or time for mind games or explanations. He’d have to walk a few more steps, but it was fine. The evening was nice, the chilly air was making his cheeks pinky, but that was fine too. He liked to feel the wind against his skin. And then he would feed, and he’d feel better, and everything would be okay.

There was a sudden, silent, blinding flash of light and everything became pure white for moment.

Arthur froze, shielding his eyes. The flash was silent but it fell upon Arthur like an explosion. His ears were ringing, he couldn’t see and all he could think was _no no no no not now why now why here fuck_

He recovered his hearing slowly, and at first it was all muffled and distant, but eventually he could hear the confused mess of yelling.

Arthur didn’t understand.

What were angels doing there?

He had checked the schedule a couple days prior and he didn’t remember anything about angels doing their Harvest so soon. Had he checked wrong? He had been so tired. He probably read something wrong. Fuck.

His eyes hurt because of the light, but he moved anyway. If the angels were there for the Harvest, they would just do their thing and go away, but if they weren’t… then Arthur didn’t want to be in the way. A low-class like him, he wouldn’t stand a chance.

His eyes were watery because of the light, but he knew he needed to get away from the open. He knew there were some buildings and alleys to the left, so he moved that way. They seemed far, and he didn’t want to expose himself for long, so he spread his wings and flew. Tried to, at least. He was too low in energy, dangerously low, and using what little he had to fly didn’t help for long: his wings failed after only a few meters, and he fell.

Then he tried again.

He dragged himself up and flew some meters more, until he was close enough to an alley to drag his body to the safety of behind a building. He sat there, shaking all over, feeling his insides twist, like he was about to break. He couldn’t think right. His head hurt. He had really overdone it this time. Three months without feeding was really too much. Alfred was right. He should apologize later.

But for now he just needed to sit there for a bit, and breathe, and the angels would go away, and some demon would pass by, and Arthur would ask them to help him get to the demon he knew and…

He fell unconscious.

He didn’t know for how long, but he got back to his senses with the sound of voices. They were close. He was too tired to care. His head hurt too much. He could barely move. So he sat there patiently and waited for whoever it was to get closer enough to hear him. He wasn’t sure if he’d be able to speak loud enough to draw attention, so he needed to wait. He was shaking. And so tired. So fucking tired. Bloody angels and their bloody Harvest, Arthur would definitely complain to Alfred later, and he would…

“Are you sure there’s another soul around here? We should be returning already.” one of the voices said.

Arthur froze.

That didn’t sound like something another demon would say.

“I’m sure, see? The compass needle is pointing this way.” a second voice said.

Those were angels.

That was bad. That was really bad, they were too close. Arthur pressed a hand to his mouth. Why were they still there? Arthur couldn’t think straight. He was scared.

“Hold on, there’s… there’s something here.” a third voice said. Arthur closed his eyes because maybe if he didn’t see them they wouldn’t see him. “Oh, it’s a demon. Uh, let’s go, we shouldn’t engage…”

“No, wait. Hold on. It’s… it’s the human soul?”

“Are you blind? That’s a demon right there.”

“I know it is, but look… the needle is pointing to it. See?”

Arthur felt his breathing getting faster and faster and it was hard to breath.

“Maybe… maybe it has just fed?”

“Hmm, no, I don’t think so. It doesn’t look like that kind of demon. The wings are too small. It’s a succubus.”

“Oh.”

Arthur took a deep breath, the deepest he could take, and tried to crawl away. He knew he wouldn’t be able to stand up, but maybe he could still put some distance between him and the angels, and maybe if someone saw him crawling away, someone would make the angels go away. He could distinguish three different voices, which meant three Harvesting angels. They were too much for Arthur to take, even if he was in his best shape. He was scared and he wanted to get out of there, but when he tried to fly again, at least a little bit further away, he barely managed to get off ground before falling on it again. He curled up in himself with a coughing fit, feeling his insides twisting and bending and breaking. It hurt. It really really hurt. He felt so fucking stupid. He tried to tell the angels to go away, but no voice came out. He was shaking too much.

“... it’s dying.” one of the angels said. There were footsteps drawing closer, and Arthur whimpered.

“Is it?”

“Yes, look at it. It’s pitiful.” there was a pause, “The compass needle is fixed on it, I think… I think it hasn’t been feeding.”

“Why would it not feed? I thought demons loved this class.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know. Maybe it’s an outcast?” there was another brief silence, and Arthur could feel the angels’ eyes fixed on him, “Should we help it?”

“I don’t know… It doesn’t look like it’ll last much, but… if we leave it here, someone might find it and feed it. Assuming it’s not an outcast. We already collected our share of soul shells, so we should just return…”

Arthur opened his mouth to yell at the angels to go away, but nothing came out of his mouth but air. He held tight to the dirt, trying to move, but he couldn’t. His body hurt. He wanted to scream.

“But… but what if it does die? We should do something.”

“What could we do, Antônio? It’s not like we can feed it.”

“Uh… hold on. Francis, weren’t you working on that thing, that thing to purify demon energy out of soul shells?”

“Well, yes, but… it’s still a work in progress, and this one is still alive. Besides, I don’t think the boss would like if we took a demon to Heaven. Not to mention that the demons would…”

“C’mon, I mean… look at _that_.” the angel said and Arthur stopped trying to take flight. “It’s pitiful and dirty. And it’s going to die anyway. We should take this opportunity” Arthur wanted to tell the angel to fuck off and go away, “Do you really think anybody would care? Demons don’t care for one another.”

That was a lie. That was a lie. That was a li—

“That much is true.” said the other angel.

No it was not!

“Yeah, I’ve seen how they leave others behind to save their asses.” the third one agreed.

“So… what should we do?”

“Hmm… Well, I guess… Since it’s dying anyway, maybe we could try saving it. We’d be doing a good thing and also making progress with my research.”

No. No. No, no, no, no no no no…

“I agree.”

“Me too.”

Arthur shut his eyes when he heard footsteps again, and then something touched him. And it _burned_. He screamed. Silently, no sound coming out of his mouth, but he screamed. He tried to push the angel away, but it only made everything burn and hurt even more.

He thought about Alfred, then, and tried to call his name, but nothing would come out.

He tried to struggle, but he was too tired.

And then he was unconscious again.


	4. Rebirth

**PART III — REBIRTH**

 

It’s been four years.

It’s been four years since Arthur disappeared and Alfred had looked everywhere in Hell. He has looked in every domain, every city, _everywhere_. And there was no way in hell a demon could disappear like that. Even if he was weak, he wouldn’t just… _disappear_ without a trace. Someone should have found a body somewhere, a soul, for fuck’s sake, but there was none.

And Alfred was angry because Arthur was _his_ and Arthur was _gone_ and it didn’t make any fucking _sense_.

He’d understand if Arthur had said he didn’t want to see him anymore, he’d understand if there was a body, he’d understand if there was an explanation.

But he had just… vanished. It was like he had ceased existing.

Alfred couldn’t feel his energy or his scent anywhere.

Nowhere.

Of course Alfred had associated Arthur’s going missing with the Harvesting. It was an agreement they had — here and there angels would descend to Hell to claim back the energyless soul shells the demons had got from humans. They even had a schedule for it they usually sticked to. The soul shells were everything they wanted, even if Alfred had no idea _why_ they wanted those useless things. So they came, they took the shells and they went away. That was it. They never got involved with demons, and Alfred knew Arthur was smart enough to just get the fuck away from angels even if they were there just for the Harvest.

He refused to believe Arthur had provoked them, and he refused to believe an angel would break one of their agreement laws. The assholes loved their rules. Yet there was something fishy there, and if Alfred was to chose between those two options, he’d chose the later.

Because he knew Arthur enough. He knew Arthur for long enough to know Arthur wouldn’t go away, or do something _that_ stupid.

Alfred wasn’t going to look away from Arthur’s mistakes: he _was_ stupid, to believe in _love_ and to refuse feeding like that, but he wasn’t _that_ stupid, was he?

Was he?

Alfred decided to ask the Prince about the Harvestings once more, if he knew about anything strange, about anything at all.

The Prince laughed at his face.

“Is this about that succubus again? I’ll have to ask you to stop wasting my time with this. It was just a low-class anyway, who cares? You can do better. There’s plenty of them in Hell.” the Prince said, uncaring.

So Alfred punched him in the face with all he got.

Not a wise move. But he didn’t _care._ All Alfred did was work, all he cared was work. Arthur was his only exception. His only distraction, his only… friend. And it annoyed him to no end to have someone talk as if Arthur were nothing. Because Arthur was so much. He was kind of an idiot, but he was so observant and smart. He knew Alfred had two kinds of bad moods; the one that wanted to be left alone and the one that could be cheered up and he always acted accordingly to each whenever he faced them. He was funny and cunning and pretty and he sure as hell knew how to behave and move and talk to get the attention of those he wanted and _fuck_ , Alfred _missed_ him _too much_.

The Prince didn’t take that insult lightly.

He demoted Alfred, not that Alfred _cared_. So now Alfred needed to go the human realm and collect souls. Whatever. Maybe he could find something about Arthur there, he thought, and that was a nice thought. He wasn’t ready to give up on Arthur anytime soon. Just like Arthur, he was stubborn and kind of an idiot, although in his case he tried not to act on it.

But now that he had acted on it, he was ready to face the consequences. So he traveled to the human world.

As soon as he got there, he didn’t even have time to check where the souls he had to collect would be when he noticed something else of major importance.

His necklace felt warm.

He looked down at himself and took the dog tags in his hand, frowning at how oddly lukewarm they felt — not the way metal feels against skin when you’ve been wearing it for long. Warmer. As if it were emanating warmth of its own.

Then Alfred figured out that the warmth lowered or increased according to where he moved. He went west and it got completely cold, but when he moved north it increased in warmth again. That didn’t make any sense, but since the necklace had been a gift from Arthur, Alfred decided to ignore his job and go find out what he’d find when the necklace was burning hot.

It took him a long time. It was hard to tell because time seemed to drag on in the human world because of the sunlight, which also made Alfred tired. Finally he reached somewhere where it was almost impossible to keep holding the necklace. It was burning his hand. Alfred stopped in front of a human house and when he stepped closer to check if the necklace temperature would vary at all, it suddenly lost all heat at once.

There was something there.

Was it Arthur…? Could it be?

Alfred gulped and circled the small house. There was an overgrown garden in the backyard. Alfred didn’t know anything about gardens, but it felt like it had been forgotten or ignored. There were more weeds than flowers, and the metal bench near a tree was rusty and there was someone next to it.

It was not a human.

But it was not a demon either.

It was wearing only whites, and it had feathered wings, and it had long wavy blond hair, but Alfred gulped a bitter mix of feelings.

“... A-Arthur?” he whispered, just loud enough to be heard. The man turned, his brows furrowed in confusion. But they were too light to be Arthur’s, and his eyes were blue and it wasn’t Arthur. It was not him. It was just some angel.

Alfred didn’t understand.

He was about to ask who the angel was and if he had any relation to his necklace warming up like that when he heard a laugh.

It was a human laugh.

Alfred turned and there he saw him.

A human.

A human child.

It was small, but Alfred wasn’t sure how small because he didn’t understand how humans aged. The point was it was small, barely got to Alfred’s waist in height. It was blond like the angel, but it had… it had Arthur’s freckles and it had Arthur’s green eyes and eyebrows and it could only be… it was…

“Arthur.” Alfred said, extremely confused.

The human child was hugging a teddy bear and it first looked at the angel, then at Alfred, then he smiled.

“Hi!” he said.

Alfred didn’t know what to do.

“Hello, Arthur.” the angel said, and Alfred turned his head so fast his neck would’ve broke if he was human. Probably. He wasn’t sure how weak humans were, but it always felt they were the weakest things and he had no idea why he was worrying about it.

His cold blue eyes pierced the angel as the human child got close to it and smiled warmly.

“Who’s your friend?” he asked, “Can we be friends too?”

“Maybe,” said the angel, “Why don’t you go get your crayons so you can make a pretty drawing for him?”

“Okay!” the human said, and then he ran away.

Alfred hissed to the angel and got closer to him, “What did you do to him? _What happened to him, why is he a human? What did you do?”_ he said in another low, angry hiss.

The angel sighed,

“When we found him, he was dying.”

“He was going there to feed. He would feed and be okay! What did you _do_?!”

“He was _dying_. Besides, we thought nobody would care. You demons don’t care about anything, and he was in such pain… so we took him, and we purified his soul so he could be human again, and—”

Alfred frowned,

“Again? What do you mean?”

The angel simply smiled an annoyingly knowing smile, but he didn’t say anything about that.

“I don’t understand how you found him, though.”

“I looked _everywhere_ in Hell for him.” Alfred explained. He was feeling almost too angry to bear. He wanted to punch the smile off that stupid angel’s face, but he wasn’t that stupid. Demons were the weakest when in the human realm. “ _Everywhere_. I never stopped looking.”

“But why? The angel asked. He seemed genuinely confused.

“Because I care.” Alfred answered. The angel’s eyes got wide in shock and he stared at Alfred, like a scientist observing a new species and trying to understand if what he was seeing was the norm or if the specimen he had was an anomaly.

Alfred didn’t want to explain himself to some angel, but he had been looking for the past four years and he was so tired of not knowing. He wanted answers.

He held his necklace to the angel.

“This is a necklace Arthur gave me, long ago. When I got to the human realm, it got warmer and warmer as I got closer to this point, and colder as I moved away.” he explained. The angel arched closer but didn’t dare touch the dog tags. He squinted his eyes.

“That’s… human. Where did he get it?”

“I don’t know. Stole from some human I guess.” the angel shook his head lightly.

“I think maybe Arthur wanted you to find him.” he said after a while.

The human child was back, this time with a box and a notebook. He sat down on the ground next to the angel and took crayons out of the box and started to draw.

“When I was purifying his soul, I peeked into his memories.” the angel continued, “I saw a lot of… of love there. I don’t know how.”

“That’s a human thing.” Alfred pointed out.

“Yes, it is. Not even us angels feel it. And yet a demon did. Maybe it was the lack of demonic energy, or his shell is broken, or… God knows. He did really love someone. You, I imagine.” he glanced at Alfred, then sighed, “When we realized this it was too late. We couldn’t stop.”

So you can’t make him a demon again?” Alfred asked. He wanted to punch something. And he tried, but he didn’t really have a physical form there.

“No, that’s how things work. Believe me, if it was possible, I’d have done it once I realized he had… feelings. We just wanted to help him. He was so low in demonic energy our Soul Compass thought he was a soul shell” the angel said. Alfred didn’t understand.

“What?”

The angel sighed.

“I shouldn’t be saying this. I’m just… so intrigued. By whatever was happening between him and you. It is so unfair that demons get to feel _love_ , but… at the same time, I think it makes sense” he said mostly to himself, which Alfred thought was absolutely annoying.

“I don’t understand!” he yelled.

“Demons are just soul shells that were left for too long in Hell.” he said, and Alfred blinked, confused, “That’s why we harvest them. So you won’t overpopulate. Demonic energy penetrates the shell and then you things are created. But you’re weak, so you need human energy anyway. Pointless creatures, in my opinion.” the angel said with such superiority Alfred wanted to spit on his face.

“So Arthur was human once?” was what he asked.

The angel nodded, “A human who signed a contract with a demon, yes. And so were you.”

That was too much to process.

Alfred stared dumbly at him.

“And you know what else?” the angel said after a moment of silence in which both of them stared at the human child happily drawing with his crayons. Alfred wasn’t sure he wanted to know what else. The angel spoke anyway, “Sometimes when we create a soul shell, it comes out with cracks, and sometimes those cracks form such a beautiful pattern that we duplicate the shell. So we have these two identical shells, but they always turn into different and unique souls when we fill them with energy. And so we place them on earth, and they are always drawn to each other, like these… magnets. And they can always find each other, and they are always happier together, no matter how many times they are placed on earth.” he smiled fondly to the human child, “I’ve seen his soul, and it has one of those cracks.” he looked back at Alfred then, who was drowning in too much information to function properly. “And now you’re here. So I have everything to believe you’re his soulmate. You were drawn to him. It’s funny,” the angel chuckled, “and sad that you are star-crossed soulmates. Both of you signed contracts with demons, became demons yourselves, and now this? How unlucky can one be?”

Alfred shook his head.

“Stop.” he said, “I care about him, but that’s… too much. I don’t feel _love_. That’s _stupid_.”

The angel shrugged.

The human child got up and handed the angel the drawing he had been making. He was smiling and blushing.

The angel smiled and held the drawing for Alfred to see.

“Look, he drew you.” he pointed, but all Alfred saw was a circle with a sad face in it and some dark colors.

“He drew an ugly potato. That’s not me.” Alfred sad, frowning. The child looked like it was going to cry, fidgeting his fingers.

“You mean.” the child said, “You’re a mean angel.”

“I need to think.” Alfred said, and then he flew away.

The angel squatted in front of the child and smiled to him, “He’ll be back.”

Alfred took one month to be back.

He tried to work for a bit and take his mind off of Arthur and soulmates and shells and all of that bullshit, but he found out he couldn’t.

Everytime he stepped back in Hell and faced other demons, every time he went to the human realm and faced humans, all he could think about was what that angel had told him and about Arthur. Arthur who now was a human, apparently, somehow. And Alfred hated how nothing made sense anymore. He just wanted things to go back to the way they were before, but nothing was going back and he was only getting more and more frustrated and angry and confused and he hated it all.

He realized after a while that he wanted to be with Arthur. That he longed to be with Arthur. That he had been with Arthur for so long that it felt weird and wrong to not be with him and he wanted to move on from it, but it was hard to and when he realized that he was trying to move away from what he was _feeling_ he also realized it meant he _felt_ something, and that this something must be the stupid _love thing_. And he _hated_ it.

And he went back to watch over Arthur once more, even if he hated it, and he hated it even more when he got there and he saw the human child again, sitting on the garden and playing with his teddy bear.

The angel was also there, but Alfred didn’t say anything to it. He just sat there and watched. The human child watched him back, but that day neither of them said anything.

But then there was another day in which the child was drawing, and Alfred approached and asked,

“What are you drawing?”

The child covered the drawing with his little hands,

“Nothing for you! Go away, you’re _evil_.”

Alfred turned to the angel, who was laughing.

“He learned a new word. He seems to like it. He’s been calling everyone that.”

“Why can he see us?” Alfred asked after another long moment of silence.

“Most human children can. They stop and forget after a while.” the angel answered.

“... do they ever get to see or hear us again?” Alfred asked.

“When they die, yes.”

Alfred flew away again.

He thought, for a moment, that Arthur could be special and that he could always see Alfred. If that was the case, then Alfred would come back from time to time, and see him and talk to him, and that would be enough.

But Arthur would forget. He wouldn’t see or hear Alfred like any of the other humans, and Alfred wouldn’t be able to interact with him at all.

The thought hurt in a way Alfred didn’t think was possible. He thought about it for a long time.

And then finally he decided.

“Are you sure?” the angel asked with non impressed raised eyebrows.

“I’m sure.”

“It will hurt, you know.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

Alfred had decided.

If it was possible for him to live in a world where Arthur lived, then he didn’t want to live anywhere else.

He’d be a human again too.


	5. Reunion

**PART IV — REUNION**

 

It was a boring grey Tuesday afternoon, and Arthur had his earphones on while he people-watched in the subway, back against the wall.

It was one of his hobbies, to observe strangers from afar and try to pick on their mannerisms, to watch their conversations and try to guess what was happening in their lives.

Both humans as a society and the way people behaved individually had always intrigued him. When he was a child, he’d sit in the corner hugging his teddy bear and watch while his parents yelled at each other’s faces. At the time he didn’t understand why they lived together if they hated each other so much, and he also didn’t understand why his mother would get so mad when he tried to ask.

Later on he got to understand. It had to do with money, with cheating, with the kids.

Ever since he could remember, he’d rather watch people than interact with them. He had always felt… a little off, a little out of place. He never knew why. Even now, with a psychology degree, he still didn’t quite understand, although being the younger child with a seven year gap from his older brothers and being raised by unhappy bitter parents were some cues.

He knew his thing wasn’t really social anxiety or anything of the sort, because he could interact smoothly with other people if he wanted to, he just… it was amusing for him to watch them, to be almost part of them but not quite. He’d go to parties sometimes, or to pubs or cafés, and he’d interact with his friends, he’d flirt and even drink and get shit-faced and sleep with strangers and it’d be really great, but he’d always feel a little stiff, a little alien.

Sometimes he felt like he didn’t belong there, and it would come to him not as anxiety or fear or sadness, just as a statement, a fact he was familiar and okay with. People were fascinating; there was so much happening inside their heads all the time, and nobody, not a single person in the entire world would have the same life experience, even twins. Every single person was unique and had an unique life and experiences even if lots of them experienced the same thing, because their backgrounds and thoughts would mold their memory of it in a different way. And it was overwhelmingly fascinating for him to watch it happening.

Sometimes, though, he would feel lonely.

He wished he could find out what was wrong in his head, what was the thing that made him feel so out of place so he could work on it. He had shared that with his therapist once, in his first or second appointment, that he felt alien, that he sometimes felt like there was something missing from him, something he longed for and deeply wanted, and she had simply said everyone felt like that sometimes, and that it probably had something to do with his relationship with his parents or being gay or both, but he knew it was neither and he knew he couldn’t explain it in a way that would make sense, so he just gave up talking about it.

And then it was Tuesday.

The subway was four stations from Arthur’s stop when _he_ entered. At first Arthur just watched him like he would any other person. He watched he enter the train with a backpack on, an open book in one hand and a milkshake in the other, eyes focused on the pages. Arthur watched as he stood against the wall opposite to where Arthur himself was, and as Arthur looked at him he couldn’t spot anything particularly eye-catching in his appearance. He had dirty-blond hair, pale skin with a few pimple marks on his cheeks and bags under his eyes, sitting discreetly under his glasses frame. He was chubby, he had a bunch of super heroes patches on his jacket and he—looked up for some reason and his eyes met Arthur’s and Arthur stared. He stared deep inside those blue eyes of his. They weren’t the most blue, beautiful eyes Arthur had ever seen, no, they were grayish and tired but there was something in them, something that maybe wasn’t _in_ the eye, but there, somewhere, and Arthur couldn’t stop staring because he felt drawn to that something, to that person that now that he looked again, seemed oddly familiar.

Arthur felt goosebumps and his chest ached, but he gulped and looked away and tried to stay still and calm. He didn’t understand the anxiety he was feeling. It felt like… like when he was five and he saw a rainbow for the first time, the most beautiful thing he could ever imagine. And then his brother told him rainbows were formed after the rain had stopped and the sun came out after it, and then every time it’d rain and the sun would come out, Arthur would feel his chest warming up in excitement and he’d look around anxiously for the rainbow, because he knew there would be one, and he loved rainbows. It was something like that he was feeling now, only he didn’t know what he was looking around for.

Arthur wanted to look at that stranger again, to allow himself to be immersed in that excitingly scary anxiety. He didn’t do it at first, holding himself back for whatever reason, fear, maybe, and also a little bit of common sense because he did stare before, but… in the end, he looked up.

The stranger was still staring at him. His blue eyes were fixed on Arthur, his cheeks were so, so pink and his book was still open and it was almost funny how he seemed like a statue, frozen there, watching Arthur with furrowed eyebrows, agape mouth.

And then he moved.

Arthur blinked and looked away again when the stranger broke out of his statue state and moved forward. He closed his book and walked to Arthur and he seemed embarrassed and curious, his movements slow, tense.

Arthur fidgeted with his phone, pretending he wasn’t seeing him part his lips, lick his lips, gulp, open them again.

“Uh…” he started, then gulped once more, “Do… I’m sorry. Do I know you from… from somewhere?” he asked. He sounded as unsure as can be. “Sorry, I just… I really felt like, you know, like I’ve seen you before?”

Arthur was sure he had never seen that person before in his life because if he had he’d remember.

But Arthur also had the feeling he knew that person from somewhere and it was weird to have both those feelings at the same time.

“I… don’t know.” he said honestly.

“Oh. Uh, maybe we went, uh… shit, I don’t know. I think I’d remember you.” the stranger said. He seemed confused. Arthur was the one to gulp this time. He also blushed.

“Is this some pick-up line?” he laughed a bit, nervous, “I’m sorry I was staring at you before, I—”

“Oh, shit, no, sorry, it’s not a pick-up line, I’m terrible with those, I just really thought… I dunno, I just saw you… you remind me of someone, I guess. But I don’t know who. It’s weird. I’m sorry. I just thought maybe if I talked to you I’d remember who it was” the stranger said.

Arthur blinked, then gulped again. He was so anxious he felt like there was a steaming hot balloon inside his chest, but inside the balloon there was freezing water and he could feel both the heat and the cold at the same time.

Who was that person?

Why did he make Arthur feel so human?

Why did he make Arthur feel genuinely anxious and excited to _talk_ to him instead of just to _listen_ to him? Since Arthur was always feeling alien and out of place, talking to people always felt… calculated. He knew what he needed to say when it was his turn to speak, he knew how to behave so people would like him, he knew every rule of making friends and dating, but looking at that stranger it was like he couldn’t use any of that knowledge. He didn’t know what to say, or do, and he did feel awkward but it was a belonging kinda of awkward, an awkward of wanting to be there, part of something, and not an awkward who was just doing his best to end the social interaction as soon as possible so he could go back to just watching.

He made Arthur _want_ to be part of something instead of just watching and that was so weird.

“Oh, uh… well… I guess we could talk?” he suggested, shrugging to try to sound more calm than he actually was, “I can give you my number, or we can go to some café and—”

“Can we? Go to a café. I don’t have anything to do right now anyway.” the stranger said. He sounded eager and excited, and the way his eyes were glimmering with something so full of life made Arthur have the weirdest sense of deja vú.

“Ok. I know a place nearby.” Arthur said, and then he smiled to himself and added, “My name is Arthur, by the way.”

“Oh! Yeah, duh. Names. Mine is Alfred. Nice to meet you, Arthur!” he said with a wide, charming grin.

“Nice to meet you too, Alfred.” Arthur smiled.

And he had a weird feeling that would be the start of something amazing. He had no idea what it’d be, but he wasn’t questioning it anymore. Whatever it was it’d be certainly exciting, and new, and good. He was going to love it all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... And that was it.  
>  I hope you liked it. :D
> 
> And this is kinda like my "soulmate AU" now, LOL. I just imagine those two meeting again and again in other lives and falling in love all over again and working hard and struggling but being happy in the end. Ops.
> 
>  
> 
> Please, let me know your thoughts on this! Your fave part, your less fave part; quotes you liked best, things that made you angry... anything! I loved this piece of writing and I'd love to know what you guys thought of it! ywy;


End file.
